Business Digest October 26, 2012

Goochose Interactive LLC, doing business as Goozmo, moved from 1900 Folsom St., Suite 108, in Boulder to 1650 38 h St. Suite, 205W, in Boulder.

BRIEFS

The local and state unemployment rates dropped in September, with the Colorado rate falling two tenths of a percentage point to 8 percent, according to a report issued by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Boulder County dropped as well, falling to 5.7 percent in September from 6.1 percent in August and 5.9 percent in September 2011. Broomfield County posted a smaller drop, with the rate falling one tenth of a percentage point in September to 7 percent. In September 2011, unemployment in Broomfield was 7.2 percent. In Colorado in September 2011, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent.

Rally Software Development Corp. is teaming with software development organizations on research to create the Software Development Performance Index. Representatives from Boulder-based Rally, the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and software development organizations are joining forces to quantify insights about development work and provide feedback on how process and technology decisions impact development-team performance. The index will aggregate a set of metrics from the areas of productivity, predictability, responsiveness, quality, customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

Parascript LLC is opening a sales office in India in response to increased demand from financial institutions in that country for automated electronic processing of checks and forms. Longmont-based Parascript’s new office in Chennai provides central access to markets in India, the Middle East and other South, Southeast and East Asia countries. Parascript has a suite of software products that recognizes information on checks, envelopes, parcels and various forms. It can recognize machine print, handprint and cursive writing.

Facebook is partnering with Broomfield-based Webroot Software Inc. to provide the social network’s more than 1 billion users with protection against online security threats. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Facebookers can access Webroot’s SecureAnyWhere cloud-based protection for their computers through the Facebook AV Marketplace.

The city of Longmont’s sales- and use-tax collections increased 11.4 percent in September, compared with the same period a year ago, according to the city finance department’s latest report. Longmont collected $4,136,688 in September, compared with $3,714,194 collected in September 2011. The collection in September represents sales made in August. The sales-tax component of collections increased by 5.6 percent from the same month the year before, and the use-tax component increased by 40.4 percent. Total sales- and use-tax collections for the year to date increased 3.9 percent compared with the same period in 2011, according to the report.

Water-quality information assembled by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is available to the public through a new tool on the agency’s website, http://cogcc.state.co.us/. The database of water samples allows the public to view water quality for specific locations throughout Colorado and marks a significant milestone in the commission’s ongoing efforts to monitor, protect and quantify water quality as part of its regulatory oversight of oil and gas development in the state.

Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN) has joined the Active Archive Alliance as a collaborative member. The Alliance is a data-storage industry consortium launched in 2010 by Boulder-based Spectra Logic Corp., Dell, FileTek Inc., QStar Technologies and SGI. The consortium develops and educates on evolving technologies for archived data.

Zeal Optics Inc. is selling its ski goggles and sunglasses in 1,000 retail sites in Europe, Canada and Australia, through parent company Maui Jim Inc. in Peoria, Illinois. Boulder-based Zeal is working with 16 Maui Jim subsidiaries around the globe on the project. Some 108 sales and operational employees in various international locations are working on brand sales. The company was bought by Maui Jim in spring 2011 for an undisclosed sum. The company said in June that it had 13 employees working on marketing, sales and design from a new headquarters at 1230 Spruce St. in Boulder.

The number of local work-from-home employees — at 10.9 percent — is higher here than anywhere else in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The percent of work-from-home employees in the Boulder metropolitan statistical area is followed by Medford, Oregon, with 8.4 percent; Santa Fe, New Mexico, with 8.3 percent; Kingston, New York, with 8.1 percent, and Santa Rosa-Petaluma, California, with 7.9 percent, according to estimates released Friday, Oct. 12, from the 2010 American Community Survey. The local statistical area includes Boulder County and some of Broomfield County, based on an online Census Bureau map.

Noodles & Co. will open a restaurant in the New York metropolitan area in partnership with the Mascott Corp., a regional franchise operator. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed between Broomfield-based Noodles and Mascott Corp., which is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Mascott owns and operates six restaurant brands in the New Jersey area. The Noodles restaurant is scheduled to open in early 2013 and will be located at 683 Route 18 South in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

UQM Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UQM) will provide the electric propulsion system that will power a yacht tender made by Mylne Yacht Design in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Mylne Bolt 18 yacht tender is a transport used to service and to deliver support and entertainment to a private or charter yacht. Longmont-based UQM’s PowerPhase Pro 100 electric propulsion system is powering the all-electric vessel.

Boulder-based Campus Publishers, a division of Redrock Publishing Co., has added two new guides to its family of more than 40 official university visitor guides. The University of Tennessee Guide will reach 60,000 members of the Knoxville campus’ community, and the University of Central Oklahoma Guide will reach 40,000 on and around the campus in Edmond. Both guides will make their debuts in fall 2013. Campus Publishers, also publishes guides for the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

CONTRACTS

Louisville-based lifestyle media distributor Gaiam Inc. (Nasdaq: GAIA) has signed a multiyear deal with fitness icon Richard Simmons to produce and distribute fitness DVDs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Gaiam will produce a new infomercial for 2013 that will feature Simmons and focus on fun, dance-inspired weight-loss workouts choreographed to hit music, a digital version of his FoodMover and healthy meal plan.

The Creative Alliance in Lafayette has been retained by Inada USA, the exclusive U.S. distributor for Inada massage chair products. The Creative Alliance will provide integrated marketing services including advertising, website development, public relations and social media.

Tart cherry juice manufacturer Cheribundi Inc. in Boulder hired TDA Boulder as its advertising agency of record, duties which had been handled in-house for the last three years and, before that, by LPK, Cincinnati. Initial assignments will include a branding and packaging redesign, for introduction in first quarter 2013, and the development of sports-related sponsorship opportunities.

GRANTS

The University of Colorado-Boulder has been awarded $1.4 million for a new study on how changes in land use, forest management and climate may affect trans-basin water diversions in Colorado and other semi-arid regions in the western United States. The grant, part of the National Science Foundation-U.S. Department of Agriculture Water Sustainability Climate Program, was awarded to assistant professor Noah Molotch of the geography department. Molotch and his team will be identifying thresholds, or “tipping points,” of change in land use, forest management and climate that may compromise the sustainability of the policies and procedures that dictate the timing and quality of water diverted from Colorado’s Western Slope to the Front Range.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Boulder-based private equity firm Grey Mountain Partners has bought the security-glass company North American Specialty Glass in Trumbauersville, Pennsylvania. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. North American Specialty Glass previously filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to a press statement from Grey Mountain. The purchase and additional capital from Grey Mountain has saved nearly 100 jobs at the company.

SERVICES

Boulder-based JNBridge LLC, a provider of interoperability tools that connect the Java and .NET frameworks on the ground and in the cloud, has announced its latest lab that demonstrates how to build .NET-based LINQ providers for Java-based HBase. The lab is available on JNBridge’s website, http://www.jnbridge.com/labs.

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